Why?
by Euterpe555
Summary: Bakura beats up Ryou, Ryou tries to kill himself, Ryou ends up in the hospital.


Ryou was huddled up on his bed with his dresser shoved up against the door. His millennium ring was tossed on the floor. He couldn't handle Bakura right now. He just couldn't take it. Usually he didn't care that much when Bakura beat on him. At least it meant that someone knew he was alive. But not today. Not after almost being raped. That man. That crazy, drunken man in the alley. Ryou had frozen, and then Bakura had come out to stop him. Bakura had almost killed the guy too. The guy was lucky that Ryou had been able to convince Bakura that the legal implications were far worse in these days for killing someone. But when they got home Bakura started ragging on him for being so weak as to need his help.

"Ryou let me in!" Bakura yelled from the hall. No answer. "If you don't I'll break down the door! You know I will!"

"Please just leave me alone! Just for tonight! Please! I can't handle this right now." Ryou shouted back, trying not to let Bakura hear that he was crying.

"Nothing even happened to you! What the hell are you having such a hard time with?!"

"You wouldn't understand. I bet you've never had to deal with someone like that!"

"What the hell! What the fuck do you think ancient Egypt was like exactly!? Do you know how many times I've actually BEEN raped?" 'Ra damnit! What the hell did I just tell him that for?!' Bakura mentally groaned.

Ryou didn't answer. He knew that Bakura had not had a good life before. And he also knew that whenever Bakura thought about it, it equalled pain for him. He was hoping that Bakura would just go away and leave him alone. It had happened before. But Bakura had also broke the door open before too. Ryou knew that that could also happen again. If Bakura did have to break the door open, Ryou knew it was going to be a lot worse on him.

Ryou went into his bathroom, ignoring the angered shouts from behind the door. He shut the bathroom door and sat with his back against it. He put his hands to his ears trying to block out the noise from the hall. 'What the hell am I going to do when he gets to me? Even if he decides to leave me alone tonight, I'm going to have to come out for school in the morning.' He thought to himself, and took off his sweater. 'If I will even be able to get to school in the morning.' He turned on the tap to wash his face. He didn't want Bakura to see that he had been crying, even though he probably knew already. He took the pair of scissors that resided in the bathroom and looked at them hard. He positioned the tip near the inside of his elbow, and slowly drew it down a couple of inches. It wasn't very deep, but it hurt a lot- exactly what he wanted. He watched as his blood flowed out gently. He ran the tap over a washcloth and put it on his arm. He had been doing this a lot more lately, and it seemed to be working. Every time he did it, he could forget what was wrong, and just focus on what needed to be done. Which happened to be fixing his arm. His arm was still bleeding as he cursed to himself at the red state of the cloth. He grabbed another cloth and ran it under the tap, as he dropped the scarlet one on the floor. 'Goddamn it, what am I going to do about Bakura?' Ryou mused tightly holding his arm, as he sat down on the floor.

Bakura broke open the bathroom door with a crash. Ryou stared in shock. He hadn't heard anything happening because he was so focused on his arm. Ryou looked at the blood spattered floor, looked at the bloody washcloth on the floor, looked at the bloody scissors in the sink, and looked at Bakura, all without moving more than his eyes. He was in shock of realizing that Bakura had caught him. Ryou knew Bakura would take this as just another sign of weakness, and he also knew Bakura would just beat him even more. He realized he was shivering, and noticed vaguely that everything seemed to be going black.

When Ryou awoke, he realized that he was in a hospital bed. Before he even opened his eyes, he knew from the smell and the feel of the sheets. He could feel a tube in his hand, which, quite frankly creeped him out, and he could feel the itchy hospital gown. He groaned as he looked around and realized what had happened. He had been stupid. He had been stupid and let himself bleed too much. He had also been stupid and let himself get caught. If he had been more careful Bakura never would have found him and he could be dead right now. He was just thankful that no one was in the room to see him wake up. He was very thankful that Bakura was nowhere in sight, even though he must have been the one to get him to the hospital. He let himself relax for a few minutes before he rang the nurse call button. A fairly subdued looking nurse walked in the room.

"Did you have a good sleep Mr. Bakura?" she asked in a friendly tone. Ryou winced.

"Please don't call me Bakura. Ryou is much better." She smiled.

"Alright then. Did you have a good sleep Ryou?"

"I guess so. When can I leave here?"

"Well, we'd like to keep you under surveillance for a few days. And you're going to have to be evaluated from a therapist. We know it was no accident."

"Will my insurance cover this?" Ryou asked worriedly.

"Yes, don't worry about it." She smiled at him again. Ryou just kept looking tense.

"Um, who brought me in?"

"It was, your brother," she said checking her chart. "He looked very worried about you," she tried to reassure him.

"Pfft. Yeah right." Ryou snickered. The nurse looked confused.

"But he did. He was very concerned."

"Look, I know you're trying to help, but don't bother. He's not even my brother. He's not even related to me. And we hate each other."

"But you look so much alike. Seriously though, I'm telling you the truth." The nurse looked even more confused.

"Well, I don't buy it. I'm surprised I even made it to a hospital." The nurse looked at him in pity, and said,

"Hm. Well, anyway, he left early this morning, we figured he had to get to his job." Ryou laughed.

"What?" the nurse asked.

"He doesn't have a job. Cheapskate's been living off me for a year now."

"Do I sense that maybe this 'accident' had something to do with him?"

"No you don't, and if you're smart you won't bother trying to 'sense' anything else," Ryou stated, his tone suddenly icy.

"Well then! Would you like some lunch Ryou?" she said in a bouncy tone, as she marked something down on her clipboard. Ryou rolled his eyes.

"Yeah that'd be great," Ryou replied, back to normal.

The next time Ryou awoke he could hear voices outside of his room. He could hear the nurse and Bakura conversing about him. He winced at hearing Bakura's voice.

"He said that we were not to admit anyone but his father. Plus he said you weren't even his brother, and it was especially important NOT to let you in. We could let you in if you were immediate family over 21, since he's a minor, but unless you can prove it, we can't let you in," the nurse stated, as Ryou heaved a sigh of relief. He didn't want to face Bakura. He could hear Bakura growl slightly.

"Our father is out of town. And the reason he said I wasn't his brother, is because we had a bit of a fight yesterday."

"I'm terribly sorry, but I just can't let you in. I wish I could, because you seem so concerned. But we have to respect the patients wishes. You must have had a pretty bad fight; he seemed surprised that you had bothered to take him to the hospital at all."

"Well, he doesn't think very highly of himself. I don't think he realizes he even has friends. If I call them up can you ask him to admit them at least?"

"Mhm. Of course. Would you like to do that now? I can let you use one of our phones."

"Okay."

Ryou breathed easier after he heard them leave. That nurse was getting perilously close to letting Bakura in.

The nurse re-entered a few minutes later asking if "Joey, Yugi, Kaiba, Anzu, and Honda" were allowed to come in. Ryou nodded, and smiled.

"Thank you very much for not letting Bakura in. I still don't want to see him." The nurse put on a sympathetic look.

"Well, anyways, most of you friends will be here within the hour."

"Yeah, you can wait by the door, but if he asks, we will have to remove you." Ryou could hear the nurse talking to Bakura from outside his door again. The door opened and in walked Yugi, Joey, and Yami who was glaring past the door as he walked in, no doubt at Bakura.

"Hey guys!" Ryou smiled.

"Hey Ryou. Are you doing okay?" Yugi asked looking concerned.

"Yeah buddy, what happened to you?" asked Joey.

"Was it Bakura?" Yami asked outright.

"Yeah, I'm doing fine, and it wasn't Bakura."

"He's waiting outside the door you know. The nurse said he'd been here for quite a while."

After his friends had left, Ryou sat in his bead reading a book. He looked up as the door opened and expected the nurse. Bakura walked in. Ryou crossed his arms across his chest and wouldn't look at him. Instead he studied one of the get well cards standing up on his nightstand. It was a teddy bear holding a flower, with writing saying "Hope you don't have to "bear" this for much longer!" Ryou couldn't see the inside, but he knew it was from Joey. Bakura stopped on the opposite side of his bed.

"Well?" Ryou snapped. "Aren't you going to say something?" Bakura didn't answer. "You of all people should have realized that I hadn't really wanted to make it to the hospital."

"I never wanted you to die."

"Only because you'd die without a host."

"That's not true."

"What?"

"Well, it's true that I need someone to connect me to this period, but even if that wasn't true, I still wouldn't want you to die." Ryou looked on with one eyebrow raised.

"I'm somewhat attached to you," Bakura blurted out. He sat down on the side of the bed.

"Oh, and so you beat me nightly to prove that."

"Well, maybe I don't know what else to do."


End file.
